Oct 24, 2013

So, time for some 2v2 action! Not much thinking went into my list, I
basically just wanted to try out the Black Legion supplement. So I went
for Chosen troops, going elite all around. Even adding some extra Power
weapons, hoping to get them into the assault and take advantage of those
2A base and also getting a chance to use the Dark Vengeance models as
they look... And for that reason I also brought Rhinos to ride around
in. And after that there wasn't much points to play around with! So I
decided to continue the expensive theme and added a Daemon Prince and
Decimator...

Knowing I'm playing together with IG I'm
counting on them to bring anti-air and manpower... I'll try to go
against the Blood Angels myself, trying to take advantage of my Hatred
that I had to pay for anyway. We'll see how it goes, but with such a
compact force it should be easy to concentrate the attack at least...

Won roll off to chose sides. Lost to go first, but they gave us
first turn to be able to counter deploy. Didn't steal. Night Fight turn
1. Baals scouted forward. Sanguinary Guard+Dante started in reserve.

Sanguinary Guard in reserve. Our Objective among the IG-blob, theirs in the bunker at the top left.

CSM + IG T1

Sorry for switching sides...

Objective turned out to be sabotaged.

Moved forward with Rhinos + Chimeras, supported by Decimator. One
Rhino took the other flank... and immobilised itself on the terrain.
Iron Arm'd Daemon Prince flew up and cast Puppet Master on one of the
Baals, flaming some Scarabs. Inefficient IG-shooting
due to Night Fight.

BA + N T1

Objective turned out to be sabotaged as well.

Baals continued forwards. Scarabs and Wraiths followed on the same
flank. The other flank had Assault Marines and Death Company move up
towards the Rhinos, preparing for a charge once the Chosen got out.
Immortals and Overlord followed behind them.

Annihilation Barge and Immortals tried their luck against the Daemon Prince, but he just shrugged it off.

CSM + IG T2

Another Rhino immobilised itself on terrain... so I decided to get
out and shoot instead. Supported by Havoc Launchers. Half of the Assault
Marines died, and one Death Company. Decimator tried to charge Assault
Marines, but failed. Daemon Prince Puppet
Master'd Annihilation Barge and killed a Assault Marine, then the DP
charged it and caused it to shoot Snap Shots next turn and more
importantly got rid of Living Metal.

On the other flank the Vendetta came on. Combined shooting with the
Leman Russes killed the front Baal. Chosen got out of their Immobilised
Rhino and melta'd the other Baal. First and Second Blood, no surprises
there! Those Baals are too scary to keep
around for much longer!

BA + N T2

One Night Scythe came in, and the Sanguinary Guard. Dante found a
tiny spot behind the huge IG-blob which was just enough to Deep Strike
into. Lots of Guardsmen died to the inferno pistols.

Assault Marines charged normal CSM and Death Company charged Chosen
with Lord (who got shot at by the Nightscythe first, killing a couple).
My CSM Champion won the Challenge, but the fight was a stalemate. My
Lord had nothing to Challenge and I thought
his Power Weapon would cut through the unit... but instead he just
killed one. But the Lightning Claws and finally Power Axe took care of
the remaining three (but not without loosing 3 Chosen in the process).

Wraiths charged Chosen on the other side. Lots of attacks from the
Chosen who piled in and was thus not affected by the coils... and
amazingly killed two of the wounded Wraiths off. The remaining Wraith
being Fearless stayed in combat however.

The Necron Overlord and his retinue of Immortals decided to charge
the Daemon Prince. Turned out to be a bad move. I passed MSS, killed
three Immortals and the rest fled... and try to run away from I9+D6+D3
(for Crusader). The Overlord also failed to come
back - so Slay the Warlord!

CSM + IG T3

The one remaining Chosen with the Lord and the Decimator went to
help the CSM locked in combat with the Assault Marines... the Lord
killed all four with his 6 extra attacks for Daemon Weapon. That's more
like it. Suddenly it was very empty on this side
of the board and the Chimeras drove up to capture the enemy objective.

The IG used First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! against Dante of
course... killed all but Dante and one Sanguinary Guard. One Rhino
managed to repair itself, the other failed. The third one killed off
another base of Scarabs (48" range is nice!). The Vendetta killed the Annihilation Barge in front of the Daemon Prince, stealing my glory.

The lone Wraith held another round against the Chosen, but took some wounds.

BA + N T3

The second Nightscyhte came on, and it decided to take a route on
the far side of their own objective planning to come back in a later
turn.

The other Nightscyhte moved up towards our Objective and let out
their Warriors who took a Hull Point off one of the Leman Russes.

Dante and his buddy in a daring move jumped over the large IG blob,
aiming for the combined Command Squad... wanting to atleast take an
enemy Warlord with him. And at this point we also realised we had forgot
about Dantes ability to nerf an enemy character...
and since the IG Commander was the only one who hadn't been in any
fights yet it had to be him. The charge was successful, but the last
Sanguinary Guard fell to Overwatch. In an attempt to limit Dante he was
challenged by the Commander... in retrospect it'd
been smarter to use the Sergeant that was also around... but that
wouldn't have been as epic. Of course Dante cut him down. The squad
failed morale... but Company Banner saved them with the re-roll.

...and the Scarabs charged a Leman Russ... exploding it easy. Which
killed enough Guardsmen to cause a morale test... which he failed.
Despite the re-roll. Gah! Some 30 Guardsmen ran off the table... because
of 4 bases of Scarabs. Unbelievable.

The Chosen killed off the last Wraith.

CSM + IG T4

At
this point the Scarabs somehow held the Quadgun... So the Daemon Prince
used Puppet Master on the Nightscythe and killed the Quadgun. The Arc
killed a couple of Guardsmen as well as Scarabs... Of course we blame it
on the Necrons. It was their guns after all. Flamers took care of all
but one base of Scarabs.
In the middle I was a bit at loss at
what to do with my stuff, so they simply decided to move towards the
closer objective which was in the enemy deployment zone. Being well
aware of the fact that the newly arrived Nightscythe could easily drop
off troops anywhere on the board... Speaking of which, something shot it
(I don't remember what, I think the Decimator?) and Locked it's
Velocity.
The Vendetta flew off the board as it didn't have
any targets. Dante killed two Guardsmen... who failed their
Leadership... and then passed on the re-roll again.

BA + N T4

The
Velocity locked Nightscythe flew off the board, the other one turned
around to start shooting at the stuff at their home objective.
The
lone scarab charged the Leman Russ... caused two glances which was
enough to Wreck it... of course. No explosion this time at least.
Warriors
shot at Chosen, killing all but three who failed their morale... Dante
killed another two Guardsmen, who failed morale and passed on re-roll...

CSM + IG T5

We
consolidated on the enemy objective... but forgot to disembark the IG
Veterans... so could've been bad had the game ended here.
Chosen
regrouped, shot at Warriors and killed one. IG Flamers went up and
finished off those troublesome Scarabs. Vendetta came in and shot down
the Nightscythe that was still on the board.
Dante killed another two Guardsmen and... yeah, you guessed it. They pass on re-roll.

BA + N T5

Nightscythe
comes back on and drops Warriors on top of their own objective. They
unload Rapid Fire Gauss on the Chosen, kills him and puts a wound on the
Lord. The Nightscythe kills all but one CSM from the squad behind.
Dante kills two Guardsmen and they pass their morale on the first attempt this time! Woot!

The game continues, luckily for us - since the fail to unload Veterans could've cost us dearly here.

CSM + IG T6

Daemon
Prince Puppet Masters the Nightscythe and kills 2 Warriors and 3 IG
Veterans who had just unloaded (again we blame the Necrons of course!).
The Vendetta comes on and shoots down the other Nightscyhte... who
crashes on top of the objective killing a couple of IG as well as
Warriors. The Veterans unload their Rapid Fire and kills the rest of the
Warriors and Lord... who doesn't pass his Everliving save.
Chosen on the other side of the board moves up and shoots Warriors and drops another one. Flamers tries to grab the objective.
Dante
kills another two Guardsmen... and finally they fail their morale and
gets swept. Dante consolidates towards the objective... remember, he's
Scoring thanks to Warlord trait.

BA + N T6

Dante jumps over the Flamers to grab the Objective, the Necron Warriors shoot the Flamers off the board.

The Objective on the CSM+IG side

The Objective on the BA+N side

At
this point we have one objective each, Linebreaker, and one Slay the
Warlord each. CSM+IG also has First Blood. Does the game end? It does
not.

CSM + IG T7

Vendetta goes down into hover mode and shoots it's three Lascannons at Dante... But his Iron Halo saves it like a boss.
I
decide to charge the Chosen into the Necron Warriors, judging their
chances to kill them and consolidate close enough to contest Dantes
objective larger than trying to roll a 6 on Difficult (and Dangerous)
Terrain (the Leman Russ wreck) and then run... and it would've worked
nicely if it wasn't for Champion of Chaos forcing me to Challenge the
Lord... I still win the Challenge despite Mind Shackle Scarabs (and is
turned into a Spawn for the trouble) but all those high S AP4 (Power
Maul) attacks that could've chewed up the entire squad is wasted...
ahwell.

BA + N T7

The
only thing that happens here is the one remaining Chosen locked in
combat with 4 Necron Warriors... now... had my Champion not been turned
into a Spawn... Anyhow. My guy kills a Warriors and takes no wounds, but
the Warriors stay. Last turn, the game ends!

Champion
of Chaos is getting really frustrating to be honest. So close to
screwing us over! All though we had the advantage anyway, it's still
such a frustrating rule.
Anyhow, this was a game of two faces. We
totally dominated the first half of the game, which I guess has a lot to
do with the fact that our opponents had quite a significant part of
their forces in reserve. Our plan to run up on mainly one flank worked
out really well also - as they spread out their stuff pretty much. When
we saw this we should probably have pulled back at least one of the
Chimeras with Veterans to the other side I think. As it were we
completely overwhelmed my flank. Turns out Chosen are pretty tough
dudes. They're still very expensive though, so I wouldn't call them
competitive. But given the right targets (Space Marines! Hatred is very
nice to have) they'll chew through most stuff in combat. They really
have a lot of attacks so even without special weapons they're deadly.
My
Daemon Prince rolled absolutely perfectly for Powers. Couldn't have
asked for better really. Iron Arm made him safe all game and Puppet
Master gave him some range so he was part of the battle all the time
despite being far from the action in the second half of the game. Also
fun to have an excuse for killing my allies...
I was kind of
occupied on my side of the board... but in the future make sure Scarabs
die if you have armour. Do not let them cross the board... ever. I
thought it'd be enough to whittle them down a bit... but they have so
many attacks per base it doesn't really matter. You have to kill them
all. Four bases almost turned the game...
Also, I need to be more
careful in the deployment. Since I helped with setting up the IG
troopers, and I was eager to start the game I put them up quickly.
Didn't cross my mind that we had Dante on the other side with
no-scatter-Deep-strike. Don't leave a hole behind your lines. That move combined with the lucky Scarabs made this game a lot closer than it should've been after that start.
Also, I see why Nightscyhtes are considered so damn good. Having Troops appear out of nowhere is really powerful. Make sure to anticipate your opponent when playing against them. Move where you think he will drop his Troops. Don't try to chase after him. Be prepared.
I also quite enjoyed having Havoc Launchers on the Rhinos. Really nice to just chip away at stuff when you all ready have the Rhinos anyway. Really nice upgrade! Sadly the Dirge Casters had no impact what so ever in this game... but ohwell.

Anyhow, really fun with a 2v2 game for a change. They have some different dynamics, and weird situations. Hopefully more of those in the future!